


Alone Together

by orphan_account



Series: Keiths in a Pod [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: M/M, Spoilers for Episode 11, aka the season finale i think, angry fire son, enjoy his pain, i bet hunk is the one who gets to bond with angry fire son, i did this to hurt my trash child, i had fun writing shiro react to it, i will probably be immediately proven wrong in season 2, im a bad person probably, we'll see when chapter two happens
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-22
Updated: 2016-06-22
Packaged: 2018-07-16 16:43:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,312
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7275895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everything went black just as he and Red were flung from the Castle of Lions. He doesn't even wake up when they hit the atmosphere of a planet. Hopefully nothing goes wrong while he's out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Alone Together

Shiro had returned to his lion, which he knew Keith had been trying to protect from Zarkon, a scant few minutes before the both of them were thrown out of the open bay doors into the unstable wormhole. He hadn't been able to tell if Keith had been screaming with the rest of them over Lance and Pidge's own cries, but when they finally (crash) land on some unknown humid planet Shiro has no chance to try and identify, the first thing he notices is that the red lion's eyes are dim, and not a single measure had been taken to negate the crash. Where he'd gotten Black to cushion their fall with its jets, Keith and Red hit the ground full force. After that fight with Zarkon, it really wasn't a good thing for them to be taking hits like that. He drops out of Black before the lion can even finish opening its mouth, to clamber up to red, where its mouth is hanging half open, and climb in to find his friend. He hears the sound of Red's forcefield activating behind him, and is thankful at least that happened. Once he makes it to Keith's cockpit, he finds the other paladin unconscious in his seat. He manages to pull the smaller male out of the seat and over his shoulder, and suddenly hears a distressed whine from Red.  
"He'll be fine, just rest. I've got him." He assures the lion almost distractedly, taking more care to keep Keith steady. Hopefully Black will have some ideas on how to help, Red clearly needs to recharge after a battle like that, and they don't have the Castle of Lions to make repairs. Hopefully they won't need it.

Shiro can't read the info on the medpod to save his life, it all looks like alien gibberish. A couple of button presses and he got what he thinks is a timer, though he has no idea what the symbols on the left mean, the little square with the ticks lighting up just about once every second is probably a 'ticker' as Allura and Coran called it. A measure of Altean time. It's counting down, and that'll have to be enough. He remembers how hungry Lance had been after waking up in the pod, not to mention how much 'food goo' (as Hunk had taken to calling it) Coran and Allura ate after their 10000 years in stasis, he decides to go scouting for food. He goes to Black's cockpit first, to ask the lion if it has any manuals for edible food on alien planets. He doesn't even get a hum, though it does light up a bit. It must be listening, even if it doesn't have any answers. That's nice of it. Now... what was he supposed to do for food? Maybe... find a local and hope to the gods the planet isn't controlled by the Galra.

As it happens, the planet's inhabitants seem... primitive. But they understood his request for food. They brought him brightly colored fruit and weirdly shaped vegetables. They seemed vegetarian and he was thankful that he wouldn't have to figure out anything about meat. He was pretty sure he remembered something about Keith being allergic to a certain type of meat. Or was it a seasoning? He can't remember. His mind is scattered and he's worried about his team mate. He brings the food back to Black after thanking the natives, who coo and ask to be introduced to the other paladin once he was ready. Shiro tells them he'll let Keith know they want to meet him, and disappears inside his lion. 

There hasn't been any change since he left to find food. He has no idea how long these fruits will keep, or how long Keith will need to be in the pod- Lance had been in there for a few days, from a point-blank explosion and a hostage situation. That's miles away from Keith's fight with Zarkon. Is he just exhausted? Was he horribly wounded? Did- did he have a concussion and pass out before Shiro could get to him? Had he failed Keith before he even got Keith into the pod? He can't tell, he can't read his status on the medpod and the timer is ambiguous and unreadable as well. He hasn't felt this useless since he and the Holts were captured, but this is even worse. It's his own fault for getting knocked out of his lion, for almost losing it to Zarkon, if he'd been better his friend wouldn't have fought the Galran emporer and Keith wouldn't even need the pod.

There's a rumble around him, and it takes a few seconds for him to realize it's Black, purring. It wants to comfort him, and he leans against the wall opposite Keith's pod, head lolling back against the wall behind him to let Black's purring resonate inside his skull. The lion helps, it really does, he's just... so jumbled up about everything else. Hopefully this will help him bond with it more. At that thought, he gets a flash of lion cubs in certain colors, and a stab of protectiveness washes through him. Oh. The Black Lion is like their mother, and since he's the Paladin... well, he gets that at least. It's his job as their leader to take care of them, and be upset when they get hurt. Especially on his behalf. 

He ends up gnawing on one of the fruits, sitting at his console studying a copy of the screen for the medpod. He doesn't know what's wrong with Keith. Of course, it's as he's thinking that and tapping the screen that he accidentally changes the view of the medpod screen to a scan of Keith. There are glowing red splotches at his neck, right shoulder, left wrist, right knee and right ankle. There's also a splotch covering most of his head, but... Shiro didn't know what the picture meant. Especially since when he tapped a splotch, it gave him more information. But it was all in Altean. He felt useless. Maybe... maybe he should look into translating this stuff? But he doesn't know where to even try and begin. And he can't ask the primitive aliens who referred to the lions and their paladins as Giants and Gods. When he'd destroyed a predator with his hand, they called him "God of the Destructive Hand" and bowed at him until he asked them to stop. Then they brought him food as offerings and he mentioned needing to bring it back to his teammate, so... he supposed they wanted a less dangerous god to worship to. Maybe.

The fruit isn't bad, and now that he's sat down and started looking through the medpod's screens he's noticed the red splotches have gone down, but the timer has gone down to one digit, as if it's close to opening. The splotches at Keith's wrist and ankle are gone, but his knee and shoulder still look bad. His neck has lessened significantly, and the one at his head has lessened to just his forehead and temples. He hopes Keith will be okay, maybe he should get up and take a look at the other paladin. He gets up to check, and has to sigh at seeing no change. Nothing obvious that's changed, anyway. He passes the medpod to wander farther into Black, and sat down heavily on a seat in the wall. And then there was a hiss and the medpod came open, and Keith tries to step out. Before he can fall Shiro's gotten over and is helping him stay upright, he's woozy and... it looks like his right arm is hanging like it's dislocated. His knee had been about to give out before Shiro grabbed him, so it's a good thing he's here to catch the younger male.  
"Keith?"


End file.
